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...The FCC Should look more closely at the series of foul-ups that have hit the UK's Digital Terestrial Television Service in recent months - with the collapse of ITV Digital, and the subsequent relicencing of the system to the BBC, view confidence in the system has slumped - and there were only 1.2 Million viewers of DTT at it's peak anyway!

Serious thought needs to be put into the transmission systems employed, signal quality, and most importantly, programme content - poor content will doom any attempts at Forced DTT takeup to complete failure - pushing more and more people into Cable or Satelite based systems... Sure, the US and UK markets are very different, but should the FCC not at least try and learn from other countries' mistakes?

DVB is already up and running - one example is the UK's ONdigital service, so it would appear that I will be able to junk my current set-top decoder and replace it with a Linux-based one from Nokia at some point. Of course, if its doing the MPEG2 decoding in software its a blimming good job they plan to use a seperate RTOS for that part. I have enough problems playing DVDs with stuttering from background processes time-slicing, so I wouldn't want to hit that on my set-top.

Digital WideScreen TV's in the UK have a smartcard slot in the set like the ones found in DVB satellite recievers, even if you don't want to subscribe to an OnDigital (like cable or satellite, but just thru an ariel), you still need a smartcard to watch the free-to-air BBC channels.

The reason is to enforce licensing, however the SmartCard issued will only work with the transmitter in your area, so say you moved from Birmingham to London... the smartcard would stop working :/

The Sony WEGA DTV sets also have a PCMCIA slot :) neat.

I need something explained here: NTSC is a crappy standard, compared to our old PAL system (less resolution, etc). We (in the UK) are pretty much all digital TV now. I have a box (which was free from the broadcaster OnDigital, and outputs high resolution TV. When you talk about HDTV, is digital TV what you mean? This UK Digital system still outputs to a 625line res, whether you use an integrated box or a Set-top. We have a thing called a tivo which is basically a big HDD that records TV, allows you to pause live TV etc.. This sounds a lot like the capabilities of the card mentioned. As for copyright issues, our boxes have MacroVision copy protection built in, due to the quality of the films being broadcast (especially on payperview). Granted, MacroVision isn't the most secure encryption ever, but I think you'll finf this card has a similar system. Ben^3

It appears that the main reason the TiVo has a telephone connection is to get television scheduling information. In the UK (and I think most of the rest of Europe) you can get such information (and a lot more) through teletext, a gloriously old-fashioned system transmitted in the space above the television picture. A TiVo-like device could either use the standard listings, or the manufacturers could 'buy' space on one channel for specially formatted listings. No phone line required...

The UK probably the world leader in digital television, BTW - there's two main providers, OnDigital, which is received through a standard aerial, and Sky Digital, which needs a new satellite dish. There's also digital cable television, and internet access through television sets is rapidly becoming a reality.

One disturbing feature about the Sky Digital system is that you must connect it to your phone line for a minimum of one year, so it can report back information like viewing habits and pay-per-view channels. If you don't, they'll cancel your contract. Big Rupert Murdoch is watching you...

Ford Prefect

Re: Crusoe's aim at wireless Internet appliances

Linux Paranoid wrote: Wireless internet is cool, but I find it hard to be optimistic about the per-month pricing over the next 3 years at reasonable bandwidth rates attracting serious (5+ million) consumers. Guys putting up towers and satellites are the bottleneck here, as is the degree of competition.

We have 98% digital cellular coverage of the entire landmass (that's landmass, not population). GPRS (128kb/sec+) cellular bandwidth goes live nationwide this year. IMT (2mb/sec+) cellular bandwidth goes live nationwide in two years. Those two services are software upgrades to the existing hardware. No-one needs to errect any more masts or launch any more satellites.

And that's not to mention Digital Terrestrial Television which is right now pumping 50 channels of MPEG TV (widescreen, DVD quality) into my living room (no cable, no dish, just a normal TV aerial). You heard me - right now - for US$10 a month. Cartoon Network humming away as I type. They are already trialling Internet services over Digital Terrestrial as we speak - although admittedly the bandwidth is downlink only.

I don't see a problem here. The infrastructure for wireless Internet already exists.

But then I live in the UK.

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We live out in the sticks and aren't likely to see cable anytime soon- and with local planning laws we can't have a satellite dish (can't have the tourists thinking us quaint old rural folk have technology now, can we?). Thus I was originally worried that OnDigital would be pants because I had no other choice for multichannel TV.

The answer is far from it. OnDigital ROCKS. Super sharp picture, digital now/next programme guide, loads of GOOD channels including loads of British and American programming.

It costs twelve quid (US$18) a month for 30 regular channels, and premium stuff such as new movies and football start at an extra seven quid (US$11) a month.

Nice thing about the receiver set top box is that it is BIOS flash upgradable over the airwaves. You just tell it to download the latest upgrade and off it goes. There are new features added every couple of months. Picture-in-picture teletext was the last upgrade; email is coming soon.

I just can't imagine life anymore without Cartoon Network.

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I live in what is called a "conservation area" which forms part of a rural area of the UK called the Cotswolds. Think Agatha Christie murder mysteries or Jeeves and Wooster and you've about pictured my neighbourhood ( We Are Here). This means:

• Telephone bandwidth limited to 33.6kbps. No "Home Highway" (lo-cost ISDN), in fact no ISDN at all.
• I am not allowed to put a satellite dish on my house nor in my garden.
• The roof tiles must remain as clay thus preventing me from putting a dish in the loft (clay blocks signals).
• I'm not anywhere near a town with cable. In fact not anywhere near a town at all.
• Due to low population my area is "low priority" for digital terrestrial TV (digital multichannel TV through an arial).

Now what I want to know is why people in towns need high bandwidth. If you want to go shopping, chat with friends, or watch movies, you just go to the mall, the pub or the cinema, right? I can't do this without having to drive a heck of a long way first.

So I would be prepared to pay MORE for high bandwidth. It would save me money (travel).

Rural areas have the greatest need for bandwidth- and are prepared to pay more- yet where is the bandwidth the worst? Rural areas, of course. And then we get hit for petrol (gas) tax because we use our cars more! WTF???

Now what I really want is a 512kbps satellite downfeed which I could then redistribute along our row of cottages using a LAN (I already have a home LAN).

Thankfully I don't live in the USA so at least I have excellent digital mobile 'phone reception with free email to my handset. Nice.

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